news comment
Jan. 21st, 2026 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimac1. Some gadfly is objecting to a congressman running for governor on the grounds that he isn't a California resident. That strikes me as unfair. A member of Congress is functionally the local area's ambassador to the federal government. That person has to have their usual residence near the federal government, since that's where their job is. On the other hand, the whole point of their being there is that they're a citizen of their district. The congressman maintains a California address and uses it as his voting address. He's legitimate, and so are many other members of Congress who've run for governor of various states before now (e.g. our Pete Wilson was a senator when he was elected governor in 1990).
2. An apartment building a few blocks away from us - about 1/4 mile - had a major fire yesterday. News report: "A two-alarm fire ripped through a Sunnyvale apartment complex Tuesday morning, displacing two-dozen residents, authorities said. ... “Preliminary information indicates that three of the eight units sustained significant fire and smoke damage,” authorities said, “and the building as a whole was damaged.” No injuries were reported. The American Red Cross is providing assistance to the displaced residents." And it's not the only recent local one.
And I wonder if the displaced residents will be allowed access to their belongings, or if the building will be torn down and hauled away along with everything in it. I'm not impressed with the 'be grateful you're alive' argument. That has nothing to do with it. If your belongings were burned in the fire, that's fate. But if the authorities can't find a way for you to retrieve your belongings, the authorities are to blame.
3. So let's say the US does something that causes NATO to "collapse." What's left? Well, the EU plus the UK and Norway are already acting together for defense of NATO territory, so that's basically the European side of NATO. If Canada joins in, that means NATO hasn't collapsed, just that the US has flounced out of it.
2. An apartment building a few blocks away from us - about 1/4 mile - had a major fire yesterday. News report: "A two-alarm fire ripped through a Sunnyvale apartment complex Tuesday morning, displacing two-dozen residents, authorities said. ... “Preliminary information indicates that three of the eight units sustained significant fire and smoke damage,” authorities said, “and the building as a whole was damaged.” No injuries were reported. The American Red Cross is providing assistance to the displaced residents." And it's not the only recent local one.
And I wonder if the displaced residents will be allowed access to their belongings, or if the building will be torn down and hauled away along with everything in it. I'm not impressed with the 'be grateful you're alive' argument. That has nothing to do with it. If your belongings were burned in the fire, that's fate. But if the authorities can't find a way for you to retrieve your belongings, the authorities are to blame.
3. So let's say the US does something that causes NATO to "collapse." What's left? Well, the EU plus the UK and Norway are already acting together for defense of NATO territory, so that's basically the European side of NATO. If Canada joins in, that means NATO hasn't collapsed, just that the US has flounced out of it.
